As it stands, LSB XE is structured around writing chapters then building these into a book. The amount of ways of doing that are limited only by the imagination in Liquid Story Binder, as there are so many different file formats such as listings, chapters, planners, builders, notes, etc. Some have wordcounts, some do not, some work with other file types, others can be associated with them, but not built into them.

For me, like many other writers before me, I found manual workarounds towards my own needs. I am predominantly a scene-led writer, although because I am reasonably structured beforehand, I normally come at writing with a whole scene structure. So unlike many scene writers, I already have chapters in mind.

I therefore use the builder module to write in (as well as keeping research notes in an overall builder) and stay away from the chapter functions completely whilst writing. Each new chapter has it’s own builder and within that builder I write scenes – already plotted out scenes. Each Scene item (a builder item) operates with normal text editing functions and has a word count.

The scenes within the builder (chapter) can be rearranged in order, but currently can’t be moved into another builder. If I want to do this I have to copy and paste all the text out of that scene item and into the other builder.

From a builder where I have the scenes all written, I can then hit the build [to chapter] option, and the whole thing goes into a proper chapter file. I then need to manually add that chapter into a planner listing so that at the end, on publishing the book all the chapters are printed in order.

Because the builder itself doesn’t have an overall word count of it’s contents, I manually keep this in a note record type. Each scene that I complete I will need to go and add that to my manual record, and keep a tally as I go. That’s because I don’t normally finish a full chapter for a few days, and I want my day’s wordcount – especially when writing to a target.

My way of working within Liquid Story Binder is individual and suits me, but many on the LSB Yahoo group have recently become quite vocal about needing to write in scenes rather than chapters. As found in that chat, many who already use LSB use roughly the same process as I do, using the builder to write scenes into, but are frustrated by not being able to move scenes around as you can do in something like YWriter, for example.

The upshot is that Black Obelisk has suggested that the next release of LSB will include the functionality within builders to move builder items (in our cases, scenes) from one to the other.

Whilst other novelists want even more (ie. the ability to title scenes and have these appear in the draft publication under chapter headings, numbers and titles) the above changes will make me very happy indeed.

Whilst I was on holiday last month, I missed not one but two new upgrade releases of LSB. I’ve only just updated my own versions sitting on a PC and laptop from downloading from the website (the current public version available is V4.31d), and await the next version to see how well the new scene functionality will improve my own writing processes.

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Liquid Story Binder V4.31

Last week Liquid Story Binder had another upgrade for those with licensed copies. Version 4.31 is out. This holds enhancements to just about every module going, including multi-level undo levels, and some backspace enhancements to the typewriter module. Here’s a quick list of those I find important, but there are many many more -

Multi-level undo has been added to various file types.
The Listing file type has been completely re-written, now with Outline style functionality.

It is now possible to extend individual Timeline items beyond the confines of a single instance. Stretch items using the `Extend Items’ and `Shorten Items’ menu options.
Choose your own Checklist item symbols using the Checklist ‘Content’ menu. Beyond the standard double-click checkmark, there are now over 200 symbols to choose from.

The Typewriter tool now includes TAB functionality and a `Typewriter Backspace Key Editing’ preference. The Typewriter display response has been increased. Enable the ‘Formatting Options’ preference to allow the use of the BACKSPACE key.

Jesse Wall of Black Obelisk Software sent out the upgrade with a download link to members of the LSB Yahoo Group last week. However at this point, the download is not yet available on the Black Obelisk website, which is still showing version 4.21.

If you are keen to always get the latest update of this writing software, join the yahoo group from the Newsgroup menu at the Black Obelisk website.

Incidentally, the typewriter (full screen) writing functions, including the enhancements, are available in the completely free to download Momentum Typewriter which is available from Black Obelisk also. Momentum Writer 2.01 contains the enhancements LSB will do, but is already available to download from the website.

LinkMe : Black Obelisk and Liquid Story Binder

100 Essential Tips and Tools for the Writer of the Future

Amber wrote me to suggest an article might be of interest, and I agree. This article sitting at the Associate Degree website simply lists 100 numbered points for the writer, with links to the websites mentioned. From designing your own business card, to using google trends, there are many tips in amongst these 100 which I found useful for myself also.

LinkMe : 100 Essential Tips & Tools for Writers of the Future

Image Credit : Wikenden on flickr (Creative Commons)

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Although Milli hosts this challenge, and you will find some material supporting it from the sidebar of the Fear of Writing blog, the 10K Day concept has been based on the material from author JR Turner. I am linking to Jennifer Turner’s webpage discussing 10K Day also at the bottom of this post.

Here are the 10K Day for Writers Rules (available on the Fear of Writing Blog, where you can sign up and comment about progress).

Mission statement:
The purpose of a 10K Day is to try to write 10,000 words. The spirit of a 10K Day is to liberate myself and celebrate my creativity.

THIS DAY IS for you, so do what works for you. But these are the rules that have proven to produce the best results:

1. No editing or rewriting.
2. No looking back over what you’ve written during the 10K Day.
3. No rummaging—either in notebooks or in your computer files—for writing you did some other time.
4. No research. Make it up.
5. Don’t fuss about the rules of writing. Just write.
6. Don’t fuss with structure. You can format, add chapter headings (or whatever) some other time.
7. No struggling. (“Allow yourself to be crappy.” — J.R. Turner)
8. Take a 15-minute break every two hours. Use this break to refresh your body, brain and spirit.
9. Report to your writing companions during your break. These “check-ins” should be kept brief.
10. No agonizing over your word count. Yes, the goal is 10,000 words, but not at the cost of your peace of mind. This is not a competition—not even with yourself! Have fun instead.
Adapted from 10K in a Day by J.R. Turner

Can You Do 10K in a Day?

Yes, I can. But can you? My statistics on two novel projects prove this. Sometimes I can manage up to 12,000K+ on a day, also. Sometimes I can only manage 2K, and that was at a push. It depends where my storyline has gone, and on many more factors.

This July, I am not at that point in a writing project where I am ready to write 10k today, so I won’t be taking the challenge personally. However, I would suggest that there are multiple benefits to my own writing that I have noticed when I do manage this: -

• It’s writing practice, so any of that is a good thing.
• The urgency to just get out that many words means that your self-critique inside gives up the ghost shortly into the day (or lunchtime, if you’re a daylight writer like myself), and just lets you go with the flow.
• Challenges like these (NaNoWriMo is another one) provide a community to both support and witness your public success or otherwise. That kind of public peer pressure does wonders for motivation.

LinkMes:

• 10K for Writers Rules – rules as quoted above, from the Fear of Writing blog.
• 10K for Writers check-in page for today’s event.
• 10K in a Day by Jennifer Turner – the principles are discussed here

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Instead, I thought I’d set myself a different challenge for today only – to write 10 Blog posts today. I initially thought these might be for 1000 words each, and therefore I would be able to say I’d achieved the 10,000, however putting word counts onto blog posts isn’t a great approach. Instead, I will just try to write accurately, and around a busy schedule of school duties today.

This, therefore is Blog Post # 1. You may witness my posts spread across two blogs perhaps, or perhaps I will concentrate my day on catching up with my latest writing thoughts on this blog. I will update below with the results.

The challenge isn’t as easy as simply writing about a new discovery or link, either. Each of my posts requires at least one, often more, images, and some research. Images I have to source and  sometimes create (such as the one accompanying this first post). All of this takes time, so it will be an interesting exercise to simply time myself and average out what my normal time expenditure on a blog post maybe.

Blog Posts Summary

Juiced on Writing Blog :

1. Blog10 Today.                                     272 words / 45 mins incl. 15 to create image.

2. 10K Day for Writers                          565 words / 20 mins incl. image.

3.  I Should Be Writing                          112 words / 15 mins incl. image.

5. Politically Correct Blandness    1865 words / 90 mins incl. lunchbreak and image.

The Chicken Diaries blog :

4. SL Limits cheatsheet.                       105 words / 10 mins incl. image

6. Chicken Tips II                                    508 words / 20 mins incl. image

7. Attraction in SL                              1200 words / 50 mins incl. image

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Note: firstly, I had to update my wordpress theme, which was having some problems with the latest version of WordPress. And that’s put me out by several hours trying to fix all the problems which inadvertently happen when any upgrade takes place. I am now missing some sidebar components, so if you spot any other errors in display or general weirdness please tell me.

If you click through to the Inkygirl blog and read about the 1000 Words a Day challenge (there is also a 500 words a day challenge) you will find a very good list of wordcount blog widgets to use. I’ve selected the WordPress widget by Jason Penney, because it allows me to run with multiple barcount widgets. I’ve put up three main goal widgets up there. However, updating the wordcounts per day is always a manual task, but at least workable via a text widget in my sidebar.

The 1000 Words a Day challenge is aptly explained on Inkygirl’s blog, and normally I would say this would be achievable for me. However, the challenge suggests writing this amount of words for six days a week. I only write on five days of the week, keeping the weekends for my family. So the trends may be a little different for me, particularly as we are entering the summer school holidays here in the UK next week, and the repercussions of that and priorities on my blog writing at least.

But a goal is simply that – a goal to aim for. And putting these into a sidebar panel is another way to publicise and use that pressure to ensure I attempt them.

And that….is another 330 words done.

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I recently wrote of feeling pinned down by the changes in a writing group I attend in Second Life, where that group now asks for a target wordcount goal for the month. I rebelled at that point, because I know that for any novel writing project, quantity is not a problem, in fact I can write at 10,000 – 12,000 words per day when I get going. However, at this time of the year, I didn’t want to “get going”, not at all.

My initial reaction was to not turn up to the group that first of the month, thus limiting my own need to come up with a target just because somebody else wanted it. It was an ostrich head in the sand moment, of course. Because I still feel a link with that writing group, and their support, and eventually I did turn up.

Last week I was pinned down to a month word-count target. At a push, I suggested 10,000 words for blog posts, as that is what I’m concentrating on at this moment. 10,000 is a frequently spoken target for many, and when questioned by the moderator of the group, it just pinged into my head. A week in, I have posted roughly 2000 words across two blogs, and have another 1000 sitting in draft format, so in essence it looks do-able, and possibly even too easy.

However, Barb Sawyer makes a point where she says -

“Everyone has become a writer, thanks to computers. Often not by choice. Frequently not by training.

“Many people have never been taught how to write with the skill, speed and grace required for the staggering amount of writing they are expected to do”.

Like many, I am of the computer generation. At the age of forty-something (er-hmmm) I have worked on computers for most of my own career life, in fact I worked in I.T. supporting them. Writing documents was my life, and detailed technical documents at that, with long detailed emails to make sure my directions to staff were clear enough to not be mis-interpreted across inter-countries and local desktops. Writing in that way had its benefits, however one of the biggest – my own speed at touch typing  (which is much faster than my handwriting or speed of thought often-enough) – that is also one of the biggest areas for improvement that I possess.

I can write – long. Very long. Very, very long. Wordcounts for me are not the right thing – give me a target, and I could easily create a 10,000 word blog post over the course of a day, and be done with it.

As for quality, now that’s a completely different matter.

For a while now, I’ve been trying to coach myself into providing shorter blog posts, not longer. Trying to provide more factual, rather than opinion pieces. I know I’ve failed on many counts, but that is my personal target – to learn how to write more succinctly, but without losing the voice of the author within.

Now, with this realisation, I have to rework that group target of mine. I probably will meet the 10,000 word count target, but personally – I want to forget about that, and work on creating some shorter posts also. Plus I have some behind the scenes writing work to get on with – some research for my upcoming novel, and the rewrite of an e-book post as promised on this blog.

Quantity vs Quality does not necessarily imply a contradiction in principles. My own goal must be to provide 10,000 words of quality posts. Quantity AND Quality. Now, at the moment I am at risk of having to provide more posts of a shorter length – because I naturally could do it more easily with longer posts to accomplish the word count target. But providing shorter posts means providing MORE posts – and that does imply something – because blog posts, like any other writing project, take time and research behind the scenes.

My targets, therefore, create the need for even more work for me. Rather than three or so blog posts per week, I now have to engineer several more, if I want to meet that wordcount target. And that does jeopardise my other writing projects. So I will have to manage my own goals efficiently, and monitor the state of play, and at a push – throw out the group-qualified wordcount target if needbe, and hold my head up high as being once again a bit of a rebel. Nevermind, there are a lot of us as writers, don’t you agree?

And adjusting our own goals to improve our ownership of how we write, and how to improve upon our writing, now that’s another worthwhile thing also.

Now, that was another 808 words onto the total, and perhaps too longwinded also.

Image Credit : Photo by santacrewsgirl on Flickr (creative commons license)

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Liquid Story Binder xe Upgrade, with New Typewriter Tool

As a Windows user I have a choice of many different writing systems. Those who have read me on this blog may be aware that my choice is Liquid Story Binder xe. Although LSB has a large learning curve, caused by the many choices possible in arranging and organising writing projects, for me, it has become a natural tool to use – exactly how I want it.

Licensed copy holders of Liquid Story Binder have just been issued an upgrade over the weekend, to Version 4.01. The developer, Jesse Wall of Black Obelisk Software comes out with upgrades all the time. This newest version is no less an upgrade, containing several bug fixes and enhancements to functions such as the word count, and search functions, and one major new module – the Typewriter Tool.

In-built to LSB, the new Typewriter Tool is slanted towards stream-of-consciousness or distraction-free writing. Users are presented with a full-screen to write in, and are not allowed to edit existing text, change formatting, scroll, delete or even use the backspace key. The Typewriter tool is available through three of Liquid Story Binder’s modules – the chapter, builder and journal writing types.

Having tried it out, I must say – it’s a little daunting. You are presented with a huge white screen of blankness, and the cursor is placed at left middle of this. My immediate reaction, even when aware that I was in a no edit mode was to try to correct my first typo – a missing space between words. The only other function available on typewriter mode was a word count below. Escaping out took me to the originating chapter mode in Liquid Story Binder itself, where my typing was presented, and I could spell-check and format as I wished.

The lack of backspace function has caused some controversy on the LSB user group mails, with quite a few people – mainly typists of old, asking for the return of backspace. I’m of two minds on that one, because I think my own take on the module was more towards the blankness of that first white screen, something anybody facing a blank notebook page, particularly in a brand new notebook, will perhaps share with me.

Black Obelisk will give you the chance to try out this particular function for free however, because not only has Liquid Story Binder just undergone an upgrade, but the typewriter function found in it has been brought out as a freeware individual writing tool called Momentum Writer.

LinkMe : For more information on Liquid Story Binder, go here (affiliate link)

Momentum Writer – Freeware

As above, Black Obelisk has now released a new and freeware writing tool, called Momentum Writer.

Momentum Writer is the ultimate tool for distraction-free writing. Like a mechanical typewriter, users are prevented from editing previously written text. There are no specific formatting options, no scrolling, deleting, or revisions. Momentum Writer doesn’t even allow you to use the backspace key. Momentum Writer forces you to write, to move forward, to add new words. It halts the temptation to linger, revise, and correct. Momentum Writer is a typewriter for your PC

Key features of Momentum Writer as listed are -

Full Screen Editing
Typewriter Scrolling
Tough Editing and Formatting Restrictions
Multiple, User-Defined Color Schemes
Automatic, Instantaneous Document Saving
Automatic Last Document Reload
Word Count Changes
Vista Compatible

Momentum Writer is a little different from my use of the typewriter function INSIDE of Liquid Story Binder, in that as a stand-alone program, it has it’s own formatting of the one screen. The screen which opens for typing, after naming your text document, is grey, with the font in white. Once you escape out of the typing screen, you are presented with an advertising splash screen inviting you to trial LSB also. Once out of that, you find yourself back at your windows desktop, with the text document as you named it, filed onto the desktop.

There are tricks for new players here, though. On re-opening the Momentum Writer program from the desktop icon I was expecting to be presented with an option to start a new file or open my existing one. Instead, my existing one opened, and for a moment I panicked.

However, right click the big screen.

On Right-click a number of options are availabe in Momentum Writer. You can start a new file, set some preferences for margins, and change to some other colour schemes for the writing screen itself. Even the workspace colour schemes – which come out of Liquid Story Binder – are customisable. You can change the background colour, font colour to suit.

Opening a new file also gives you the option of where you wish to save your text files also. I hadn’t noticed that the first time around. You can then easily export your text file into any of your writing programs for further editing work.

As a free program, I would suggest for those looking for a pure write with no distractions program, Momentum Writer is worth a trial. After some usage, I got really going, and have found it particularly good for journal entries, naming my text files simply by the date or entry. As I have a journal function and the same typewriting function within my copy of Liquid Story Binder, I have it all within the one place.

LinkMe : To download Momentum Writer, go here. (direct download link)

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Installing and Setup

GenoPro provides a free 14 day trail of the program. Install requires a trial registration key to be sent out to you before you are able to open the program up. Once you’ve input this key, you are presented with the following screen.

As I didn’t want to start from scratch, I used a pre-worked file from a free program. My previous efforts in Family Tree Builder resulted in the creation of a double-twin persona to show an adoption. I deleted this character for the sake of the gedcom file (the standard file format for genealogical data), and the file imported into GenoPro had the main character with two parental groups associated. The import went quickly, and I found myself presented with a genogram or diagram of my families.

However, there were a few minor problems. My main character was showing the incorrect name (her birth name rather than her adoptive name, and a middle name had been brought in as a surname also in the import). So I had to go into GenoPro to change the details on this character. From here, I could also browse to find the photographs (the export to a gencom file had put these photos into a handy folder).

Note: although there are copious tabs available for data input against people in GenPro, there is only one alternative name section (and one nickname section).

The relationships in GenPro can also be labelled. I first labelled the link between my main character and her boyfriend. And on clicking the line between her adoptive parents and herself, I found another error. I then changed this relationship to one of adoption, and was given the ability to input the adoption date. The program calculated my character’s age at her adoption for me.

The adoptive link has changed to a dashed blue line. My basic relationships are now set.

Additional Features of GenoPro

GenoPro is sold not only to genealogists but with it’s genomapping features, the program is sold to people like social workers and even as a structural diagram maker. I decided to take a look at some of the many functions available.

1. First, Adding a New Person

Adding a person is a matter of drag and drop. Interestingly, you have an option for gender of male, female, pet or unknown. I added a male who may (or may not) become the boss of my main character, and later decided my protagonist should have a pet too.

You can obviously add very old people (from several centuries) and without a death date. You can also add future births, including well into the 30th centuries. But inputting dates with non-numeric calendars within it are not allowed. Hence my SciFi Alien is dateless (but still an entity).

Relationships between entities are again, a matter of drag and drop, after selecting the relationship. This is similar to using charting / flow diagram software. Relationships like this can be labelled and annotated.

2. Adding Other Functions

Adding a social grouping or organisation is a breeze. The default is a pink colour background, but I thought the police force should be an off-blue.

If I were to build a bigger character set for this Metropolitan Police department, I would probably take the organisation out to a separate genomap.

You can also add emotional relationships between entities on the genograms. Here I’ve selected a controlling relationship between one man and the main character. He is her boss, after all.

And here I added some more emotional relationship links to some of the characters.

3. Reporting

GenoPro doesn’t allow you to export this genomap as a PDF file. But it does generate an XML report saved to your hard-drive, which opens into a browser. The following are some of the reports available.

Reports can show timelines, relationship data, location data, the photograph galleries, ancestral family trees, and any other data you could wish for.

Summary

GenoPro is available as a single license for US$49, and provides some comprehensive mapping features for the writer interested in creating a family or organisational tree for their characters. The application is reasonably easy to use out of the box, and provides a lot of functionality behind the scenes. It’s well worth a look if you think you will be using it often enough to support the cost of the license.

LinkMe: Download the trial version of GenoPro

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Labyrinth needs Microsoft DotNet installed to work, and installs pretty quickly. It has limited help documentation, however, and no sample project to work your way around, so learning how to use the functions became quite difficult for me.

Within Labyrinth, there are several helpful functions for writers, however. You can add story elements to start off with – characters, events (plot points), locations and other types of elements. These can be added as an element within the project itself, then annotated with formatted information, or linked to external files. Elements within Labyrinth can be linked to each other also. Links can be labelled.

The annotations are a reasonably strong feature of Labyrinth. You can have a formatted annotation (perhaps setup as a template using the notes facility – see below) or a file link as an annotation or a drawing annotation. The later gives you a file with a cross-hair cursor to do some freehand drawing on it. Using all these, my main character card (or element) was augmented with textual information, a link to some graphics of her, and I could draw a smiley face if I really wanted to.

Each of these annotations appear in a list against the element – including being able to see the sketch graphic in this list also. Annotations and elements themselves can be sorted, and filtered to find them.

Once you have some elements – in my case, several general character cards, and a few key scenes – you can drag these onto the next function within the application – structures. You can have an unlimited amount of structures. In my novel’s case, I required two – there are two main plot structures. Elements can be dragged onto this structure, and arranged as you please, with labelled links between them. Structures show the relationships between your elements. With the labelled links between them, the structural tab makes for either a good mind-map type arrangement of your story elements, or even something like a family tree if you’ve got a complicated multiple-character relationship to plan out.

I found the next function – timelines – much harder to understand. The samples I went looking for, on the website, show a structural timeline with characters down the left, and chapters or acts across the top. Elements can be dragged onto a timeline also, but end up on the left hand side. I therefore ended up with a smorgasboard of characters and scenes on my left, and blank rows across from this. It took a moment for me to work out that scenes are better left as new annotations under the chapter headings. For me, this didn’t seem logical, as I’d just spent all that time doing up critical scenes as events in my story elements. Although I am yet to use the timelines function in anger, and to produce a procedure which works for me. Plot points – the chapter or act headings within timelines – can be scheduled or set with calendar dates also.

Labyrinth also has note functions, where notes sit in a separate database, in chronological order. These can be used as annotation templates also (I would suggest setting up a template for character profiles perhaps).

On the tools menu there is also a Task function. Create a to-do task, give it a low-medium-high importance, and schedule it by date if you wish. Tasks become yet another story element – which is shown at the top in a long row across the functional windows. You more easily get to your elements via the elements tab on the left navigation menu. From here you can drag and drop your elements into structures or the timeline. Or within the Elements function, view the list of annotations.

Labyrinth provides a print function and an export function on your project elements. You can also import in Labyrinth projects in total (should you find any). There is no automatic backup, so take care with this. You may also need to consider the size of your windows. I have a large width to my monitor, and at full size, the tabs and elements are stretched out. This is particularly interesting with the sketch annotations. But full-size is helpful when looking at timelines or a story structure of relationships.

As a free piece of software, there are enough functions to allow a writer to play around with their story writing projects, and the graphical nature of Labyrinth supplies something to the creative side of organising such projects.

I am not so sure I personally will be using Labyrinth further, as there are other free or commercial pieces of software available with similar functions. However, the free-form nature of the annotations, and simple drag and drop functionality to setting out elements into structures make Labyrinth a creative and simple environment for playing around with your story ideas. And for my own current novel project, Labyrinth made it fun to move forward in my limited planning and prep-work, without the confinement of some software’s structural templates or expectations.

LinkMe: Download Labyrinth from Habitual Indolence.net.

Also consider Spacejock’s yWriter, a free project organising application which offers many similar functions, plus a writing environment with statistic reporting also.

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Rather than show you how I went about this with my actual tools – and these outputs do sit on my computer in files and a directory, which is where the real work will take place when I begin writing – I thought that given the novel seems to want to remain less structured than others before it, and in a more conceptual and graphical way – well, fine. I will then show you the concepts in a graphical way also, in a series of screenshots.

Introduction to My Second Life Writing Tools

Through the Writing Shack Window

To get your head around it, Second Life can provide both a supportive community of writers (a good look at this can be found with the Writers in the (Virtual) Sky blog) and you can use the environment of Second Life as an environment to write in.

Yes. Totally.

I’ve previously written about my own creation of a virtual ‘Writer’s Shack’, and I use it for a base in which to put all my virtual writing stuff (which you’re about to see). No, that doesn’t mean you can actually write in there – but I use the Shack as a background to my actual writing (or in this case, writing planning). So, I logon to Second Life, and walk to my writing shack, either sit at the virtual desk there, typing on my virtual laptop (all supplied by in-built animations in the chair or laptop itself) or I sit at my virtual grungey couch. I then open up all the rest of the tools necessary to my writing, or planning prep, and have Second Life in the background.

My virtual shack is setup with a complete ambient scenery – I play some bird calls from my New Zealand home country – there are calls from native birds, and a chirping cricket sound. Beside the shack, there’s a large hidden cave with waterfall – so you can hear the gentle sound of water also, if you listen hard. Above my property I have a circling seagull, and his (I presume its a ‘he’) shriek occasionally penetrates into the cabin also.

With Second Life playing in the background, my real life writing is accompanied by gentle ambient sounds.

(Well, they would be aside from the one sound output I’ve not mentioned – my chicken farming experiment. Occasionally the shrill peep-peep-peep of hungry chicks in my coop wakes me up from a natural loll.)

If I’m in a different mood, I have a jukebox in the shack which can play heavy rock or ambient music via the fifty or so internet radio channels programmed into it. All these sounds simply pipe through Second Life, out via my speaker system and as background to my actual typing on my keyboard in real life.

Sunset and Pizza - what more could the writer want?

My virtual desk with laptop and mouse sits under a window, and in my shack I’ve surrounded myself with many other writing implements and reminders. These provide a real kick in the bottom to actually get writing. I have posters on the wall which make me feel inspired, and these can be changed quickly with new textures, so I never get bored.

Many of the excellent writing groups and businesses in-world also supply writing equipment for inspiration. I have collected a can of alphabet soup for writers, a marathon bar for writers sits on my desk, and there are clipboards, virtual paper and writing books sitting around the place also. It’s fun, and an interestingly inspiring environment to work within (or without, as the case is).

On my ram-shackle coffee table (propped up on concrete bricks) I’ve got another laptop (for when I want my avatar to sit on that couch and work) and a half eaten pizza and can of non-diet coke. Sustenance is important for the writer, yes?

And if I don’t feel like writing, I can always read. I have a reading ottoman that allows my avatar to lie down and read, and I can actually read ‘real’ books in-world – and buy these also. Many Second Life magazines come free also. They work with flip-page technology, and you can re-size many of them for readibility.

But of real importance and relevance to this post is my WIP writing board, which started off as a purchase of a large low-prim blackboard. This sits on my working wall beside the desk. As I can change the texture (or picture) inside the frame, I decided to create both blackboard and cork board working images of my own novel in progress, as it’s developed. So, here I’m going to show you both WIP boards in-world. Although, as I said earlier, I have bigger working copies of these outside of Second Life, available as I move on with the planning and preparation stage.

MindMapping the First Brain Dump

Shhh! Novel hard at work, and it's late, too.

Theme, motivation, what’s the story really about? I find that once I really start trying to document this, other ideas spring to life. Using my trusty mindmapping tool (I use Mindjet MindManager, but many others will do) I set about starting a braindump of ideas, starting off with ideas on the theme and motivations behind my main character.

This novel is character-led. However, the main character is not a hero by anyone’s estimations, and ends up in prison for her crime. Struggling with the fact that I wanted to build a character who was ultimately never going anywhere, I also had the realisation that this wouldn’t also lead to possible serial characters. From my original brain dump map came another main character to fit this need. And from that character came the point of view, and a large sub-plot which could be taken out into a series of books, should this one ever find publication.

That’s as far as I went in any planning treatment however. The mindmap itself is very shallow, but I then took it out graphically as a screenshot, and enhanced it using graphics also. From a mindmap with only three roots off the main central theme, I added the blackboard elements you may make out, using my graphics editor (I don’t have photoshop, but Corel’s Paint Shop Pro does an equivable job). And I added some chalk figures and handwriting to add to the blackboard theme. I have some To Dos for research I need to concentrate on, and some possible setting lists written down on my blackboard (graphic) also.

As I’ve created all this as separate components (the mindmaps can be changed as I go) and combined into a graphic, I can use the large graphic to enhance my inspiration, perhaps as a desktop wallpaper on my working computer, or I can simply use it within Second Life on my WIP blackboard. After uploading the image, and putting it into the contents of the board on my wall in-world, I have the following reminder for my novel :-

Image Boarding the Main Characters

Working with the Character Image Board

The original mindmap – plus extras added around the sides – triggered a need to further develop my understanding of the two main characters. Normally I have a rough idea of the age and start off with a simple internet search for relevant photographs. Yesterday I started on this work, but ended up developing an entire career and background history for both characters. What I didn’t want to do – because this novel doesn’t seem to ‘want it’, was end up writing streams of pages of character dossiers etc. I wanted to keep my preplanning to a more graphical element this time, and not super-impose anything other than images overtop of what I was already thinking.

To store my images, I decided that the blackboard concept could readily become a corkboard. I found a cork background and began building the image board onto that, complete with pin tacks and sticky notes, poloroids and other graphics to enhance the model.

As I had chosen the career of Forensic Psychology for my main narrator, I went more in-depth in researching her career. Sitting on this simple image board is a fake ID for the London Metropolitan police force, and from that, I suddenly had to fill in a name for her. So she has a name now, and it all feels right.

The cork image board took several hours to create, but behind the scenes I have also implemented quite a lot of research to get an understanding of these characters. Because of the specifics, I also have a lot more research to do, before I can consider if I’m ready to go with the actual first draft. But developing the characters using an image storyboard in this way was a method which worked very well for me. Within one day, I had the characters, and the story has developed well along with them.

The framed board within my Second Life writing shack can change from the blackboard texture / image to the corkboard one with one simple click. Any additional images or work I upload into it will be accessed quickly also. The resolution is big enough that I can zoom in with my camera tools, and read all the fine detail if I need the prompt. And with one-click access to all these novel images, I have developed a very efficient prompt to my writing.

Other Tools Used

As this is a graphics intensive project, I am using software – both client and online to create my models for the novel in progress. These include the Second Life tools I’ve gone into depth with above, and Mindjet MindManager, with a graphics editor which can take screenshots of the projects in these tools, if the files can’t be exported automatically into a graphic format such as .jpeg. Most do allow for this, however.

In the character image board you see above, for instance, I have worked on and inserted a family tree. It has been placed on a notepaper, set centre-top of the corkboard. This family tree was created as a simple flow-chart image in a free online program called Draw Anywhere. I do have a family tree program on another computer, but for the work involved, decided I only needed a simple chart. Draw Anywhere allows the export of its files into PDF. From the PDF – which I have filed in my WIP directory, I took a screenshot of the image, and inserted it only the notepaper for the sake of the image board.

Coming up, I have some more research / background work to do, and some scenes to plan out. I normally do my scene cards in a commercial tool I like, called Writer’s Blocks. Writer’s Blocks allows you to view the cards in a structured card form, or as an outline, or as a manuscript. Or I can simply take a screenshot of the blocks with large titles, and stick that into a graphic for my corkboard if I want.

Another popular (and less expensive) notecard software for writers is Mindola’s Super Notecard (note – requires Java). Again, there are various export options and I could take screenshots to act as a WIP board as I went.

My own scene cards become the outline plan for the novel draft itself, but 80% of the time, as the novel progresses, the scenes and outline change also, so these are kept updated on a daily basis. I doubt that it will be efficient to take these moving cards into Second Life as a graphic, but I will put up a corkboard or blackboard of some initial critical scene thoughts to start off with.

There are many other worthwhile tools available online to make use of for the writer, and with the use of screenshots and exports, I am developing a graphical package for pre-planning of my next novel. Putting it into such a graphical format is also having the added benefit of providing two interlinked writing environments for me – real life and virtually. And it’s really making me inspired to start on that first draft (once I’ve done the minimal research I require).

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